Ion Chromatographic and Capillary-zone Electrophoretic Detection of Accumulated Fluorine in Melanoma Cells Cultured in the p-Fluorobenzenesulfinate-containing Medium

Abstract

In order to evaluate the possibility of using sodium p-fluorobenzenesulfinate (NaFBS) as a probe for magnetic resonance imaging with fluorine (¹⁹F-MRI) in diagnosis of melanoma, ion chromatography (IC) and capillary-zone electrophoresis (CZE) were applied to determination of fluoride ion (F^-) in samples for melanoma and control cells cultured in the corresponding medium containing NaFBS at various concentrations. Under the conditions employed, a peak for F^- was detected and identified on the chromatograms and electropherograms, and the F^- level determined by IC and CZE was elevated depending on increase in the amount of NaFBS added to media, especially in melanoma cells. As the accelerated accumulation of F in melanoma cells was caused possibly due to enhanced generation of 6-fluorobenzenesulfonyldopa by the reaction of NaFBS with dopaquinone as an intermediate of the tyrosinase reaction, the results of IC and CZE analyses suggested that NaFBS may be a potential candidate ¹⁹F-MRI probe for diagnosing melanoma with the highly elevated tyrosinase activity.